MOSCOW, January 1 2024 will be determined by the accelerated development of artificial intelligence, confidence in this technology will grow, it will begin to be actively implemented, becoming a person’s constant assistant in the workplace, said in an interview with Baek In-soo, chief researcher at the Korea Institute for the Development of the Intelligent and Information Society (NIA).
NIA's Center for Artificial Intelligence and Future Strategy recently conducted a benchmarking study of the most promising technologies and trends for 2024. The work analyzes forecasts from the consulting company Gartner, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the World Economic Forum, the Consumer Technology Association, as well as the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Planning and Evaluation (KISTEP) and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI). The researchers found that the most overlapping technology trends that distinguish these organizations relate to the improvement of artificial intelligence, strengthening security systems, intellectualization of industry and digital transformation of enterprises. In addition, technologies related to the sustainable development agenda, genetics and biology, medicine and healthcare, and smart cities will be actively developed. Breakthroughs are also expected in the field of semiconductors, electric vehicles, advanced batteries, computer games, communications, computing systems and aerospace technologies.
«We have grouped promising technologies and trends into 15 areas that, as leading research organizations predict, will be decisive in 2024. But if we try to reduce and generalize them, I would highlight 7 main trends. The first of them is the development and improvement of artificial intelligence. The second is creating a basis for trust in AI. And the third is also about artificial intelligence, but in terms of automation and digitalization of various industries, as a result of which, starting this year, AI assistants will begin to be fully implemented, complementing and replacing the labor of a qualified workforce «- said Baek In Soo.
According to him, if earlier the development of artificial intelligence took place within the framework of improving the technology itself, now we are talking about the stage of commercialization, and the main focus will be on the implementation and adaptation of technology to various spheres of life. However, there is no talk yet that AI will begin to massively displace humans from some professions. Rather, we should talk about the intellectualization of workplaces and the trial use of tools such as chatbots with generative AI.
“They will become full-fledged assistants capable of increasing the level of qualifications of workers. In the coming years, there will be no such problem as a full-fledged replacement of a person and the related issues of restructuring the tax system and redistribution of income — this is a long-term perspective. But from the point of view of developing response measures, We need to prepare for this now,” the scientist believes.
From neuroelectronics to flexible batteries
Artificial intelligence also creates many risks associated, among other things, with the dissemination of false information and falsification of images, voices and videos according to the methodology » deepfake.» Therefore, an important direction for technology development will be to develop ways to counteract these phenomena and increase confidence in the use of AI-based solutions.
One of the promising areas in this regard could be quantum computing, which can provide both a new level of data security and unprecedented processing speeds and information storage volumes. However, as Baek In-soo notes, the practical implementation of this technology is still far away, and cloud computing should be considered as the fourth most important technology trend for 2024.
“Cloud technologies were important before, but their importance is increasing every day. Digital transformation is taking place on their basis, cloud services make it possible to rebuild many internal processes of organizations. Therefore, this year they will become even more firmly established in our lives,” says the scientist.
The ESG agenda will also remain a trend: various energy-saving technologies, smart agriculture using new microsensors, battery reuse, organic aviation fuel and everything related to the implementation of the concept of sustainable development. The sixth is biotechnologies, which are already finding many practical applications, such as lowering cholesterol levels through genome editing, custom growing organs for transplantation, or flexible neuroelectronic devices that are relatively easily connected to the brain and can combat epilepsy, depression and paralysis.
Completing the list of main trends for 2024 are technologies that previously “fed” many high-tech companies, but will continue to actively develop this year. These are nanoelectronics and chip design using open standards, advanced batteries and flexible batteries, as well as everything related to the transformation of electric vehicles into the main means of transportation.
«In most of the above areas, only a small group of countries have competencies, and their gap with other countries is only increasing. But we believe that by using our competitive advantages in a certain industry and working hard, new ones can be created based on advanced technologies promising markets. And many in the world will be ready to fight for them,” emphasized Baek In Soo.